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48 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2026 F E AT U R E A RT I C L E BY N O L A N J O H N S O N , I - C O N N ECT 0 07 In 2019, Mexico made a huge step toward economic development by creating the CIIT as a public body to integrate the ports of Coatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz with railway transport and regional development. The decree explicitly describes the project as a logistics platform linking those ports by rail and promoting economic development in the Isthmus. 1 After several significant construction projects, the 308.5 km rail line, the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, began operating in December 2023. 2 For electronics manufacturing, the value is not just the "new railway." It is the value proposition for local manufacturing and global distribution created by this particular combination of ports, railway, industrial parks, and tax incentives. All this development creates an attractive new manufacturing corridor along the CIIT. Strategically, the CIIT gives Mexico's electronics industry Pacific access for Asian components, and Gulf/Atlantic access for U.S. East Coast and Euro- pean markets. The CIIT corridor is being positioned as a logistics backbone for Mexico's electronics and semiconductor industries, not just automotive production. This two-ocean logistics and manufacturing access should be attractive to the development of industrial zones for electronics and semiconductor investment. It is expected to become part of the supply chain supporting advanced packaging, PCB Mexico's Answer to Bypassing the Panama Canal The cargo ship, Bali Sea, loading up with trains at the port of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, in 2007. (Source: Creative Commons, Ferrosur)